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no sane person could think this level of killing of innocents has any strategic value
To some people it has huge strategic value. The Hamas leadership wants the killing of innocents on both sides to lead to an unstoppable war which eventually destroys Israel. Similar to Bin Laden's reasons for 9-11. It wasn't really about revenge for the presence of US soldiers in Saudi. Sure, that was one of his long list of grievances, but his strategic goal was to provoke a US invasion of the middle east. This would enable muslims from all over the world to participate in a jihad, defeat the US, overthrow the Saudi regime and destroy Israel. The end result would be a caliphate governed according to Sharia law.
nick_h.
Stating this to justify killing 1000s of innocents at random doesn't justify the killing, any more than Israel saying their genocide is in retaliation against Hamas. Al Quaeda rejoice in the deaths of non Muslim westerners, just as the Israeli right rejoice in the deaths of all innocent Gazans.
Not disagreeing that it was presented as a retaliation for US actions. It's mindless in the sense that no sane person could think this level of killing of innocents has any strategic value